2012 Terre Haute Walk Now for Autism Speaks Recap

The 5th Annual Terre Haute Walk Now for Autism Speaks took place at the Vigo County Fairgrounds on Saturday, Sept. 15th, with 2,600 people in attendance. To date we have raised $52,000, with donations continuing to come in as we reach toward our goal through the end of the year.

Special thanks to 100.7 MixFM, who provided the tunes for the day, our emcees Nick and Kristen, Geoffrey the Giraffe for making an appearance during the Walk, and to Mayor Duke Bennett for sharing the proclamation making the day ‘Autism Awareness Day’ in the city of Terre Haute. A huge THANK YOU to Walk Chair Debbie Beard, all of the volunteers, and a special shout out to the entire Terre Haute Walk Committee Members for making this Walk so successful for the families of the region.

From the fun of riding around in the hay wagon, to the sweet music from the instruments, to the cool race cars, to the bubbles, facepainting, bean bag toss, bound house, team photos, and food; the walkers had so much to choose from thanks to the generous donations of so many local companies and families.

Kudos go out to our nine Grand Club members, who were called to the stage to receive their commemorative pins.

The Community Resource Fair featured 15 local providers and many of our wonderful sponsors were on site, including Toys“R”Us and Babies“R”Us, Bridges of Indiana, Harsha Behavioral Center, and the Arc of Vigo County. Additional sponsors include Bemis Company, Union Hospital, Eli Lilly, Sam’s Do It Best Hardware, The Hearing Care Center, and Alorica.

We’re so grateful to all of our participants who worked so hard for months leading up to the Walk, all of our Walk day volunteers – including the amazing work of the ISU students and faculty, the Walgreens team, the Bridges team, and to those who will continue to work through year’s end to raise much-needed awareness and funds in support of our mission as we reach for our $75,000 goal.

The Autism Speaks blog features opinions from people throughout the autism community. Each blog represents the point of view of the author and does not necessarily reflect Autism Speaks' beliefs or point of view.